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[jonaz.dk]

Hotline Miami Creators Break Down its Design & Legacy

[jonaz.dk]

Another DK release from KILOO!

Fields of Fury
A WW2, online multiplayer, browser based Capture the Flag FPS game.

Currently in beta and desktop only.

Just had a super quick game. And it was pretty fun! The servers needs to be more occupied more for the CTF mode to work fully as intended. A bit buggy here and there in the beta.
Theme is straight to the point and the level design is far better suited for FPS gameplay compared to their previous Bullet Bonanza tile.
There might be some balancing issues having pickups spawn rather quickly in the same place. Quickly turning these areas into camping sites. But in general it seems to work well (based on very little playtime). Good job!

https://www.fieldsoffury.io

[jonaz.dk]

And today is launch day for Logic Artists' Expeditions Rome on Steam (at time of writing) in under 9 hours.

I have a good feeling about this project! Especially over time if the players are happy campers. Vikings has sold rather well in it's current life time, somewhere roughly estimating between 200.000 and 500.00 units. Of cause at varying price points with the steam sales. https://steamdb.info/app/445190/graphs/

**Update: Wow! Really nice critic ratings so far! 82 on metacritic. Based on 15 Positive and 2 mixed reviews. Excellent start!
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/expeditions-rome

There is also an interview in Danish with Jonas Herløv Wæver on the project.
https://eskapisterne.dk/2022/01/16/afsn ... r-til-rom/

Also couldn't spot Jonas as currently being part of the new Dynasty Studios. Perhaps that will never happen!? In the interview he doesn't seem to be a big NFT proponent. So let's see what the future brings there.

And good job team! and good luck with Rome and future endeavors where ever it may take you! Cheers from Jonas to Jonas and the team!





**Update:
Now also includes a DRM free GOG release of Expeditions: Rome
https://www.gog.com/en/game/expeditions_rome

[jonaz.dk]

Also it's Launch day for Hitman 3 on Steam today.. but still can't find the Hitman 3 Steam page. It should be up in a few hours though.

Will update post when the Steam version happens.

[jonaz.dk]

Also the Ghostshippers has reached 10 millions lifetime players of Deep Rock Galactic!
Super crazy! Big grats to the team!

https://gametyrant.com/news/indie-gem-d ... al-players



And Subways Surfers reached, yet again, top downloaded game of the year.
Grats to SYBO!
Let's see when they manage to release another mobile title.

[jonaz.dk]

EBSynth it out with a public beta!

A video to (absolutely incredible!!) painterly/stylized look conversion tool.

Looks amazing! Could be used in game production for certain types of game and scenes. Though it's far from a main stream gaming thing. But still very much worth a mention.




Free beta download at
https://ebsynth.com/


** Update: Tested and works as advertised!
Sort of! EBSynth needs well fitted keyframes to do the best job. The first super quick paintovers of 2 footage based keyframes of myself went really well for the software.
The second attempt using in-game screenshots of the Gerda character roughly aligned to my face didn't do very well. But the generated nightmare fuel is perfect in it's own right. Next mission is to convince the coworker ladies of the gamedev dungeon to do some Gerda cosplaying. But they seem to be oh so very very shy.

Would actually have been really nice to use the tool for the small story illustration scenes in Gerda - A Flame In Winter. I know we don't have time to employ it at this late stage in production. Would have been very much fitting with the style of the game and taken the illustration scenes to the next level.

[jonaz.dk]

Aaaaand Hitman 3 goes live on Steam!

Though to red 'Mostly Negative' user reviews. OUCH!! That was unexpected!
The game has ranked up amazing traditional reviews when it initially launched. Probably the best Hitman game ever.
My impression is that the new independent IOI really had everything from launch to post-launch down to a tee. So it is unfortunate to see this early negative reception among the most ardent fans buying the game day one on Steam launch.

A multitude of "outside" reasons seems to be the cause. Including price point, online issues preventing players from playing the game (probably the primary reason), performance issues, Epic exclusivity hangover, the game is free on XBOX game pass (probably over loading the IOI servers) and VR not working properly.

Let's hope they will ride the wave though. The game should be objectively good and history has shown the recent franchise entries to be really well received by gamers. It should not be impossible to resolve a range of these early pain point issues. The good news for gamers is that IOI will have to care, to nurture their studio reputation (or at least let's hope so). As it is an independent company running their own IP and not just a studio in a large corporate structure where decisions are made high above with little regard to community. Or a work for hire studio just doing some one elses IP.

So IOI has some hard leg work to do in the immediate future. Crossing fingers they will be able to rebound from the initial gut punch from the community.

And grats on Steam release by the way! Even in its rocky state.

**Update: Current review state has leveled at 'mixed' review score. And IOI has annouced an upcoming patch with the VR in focus. And I guess the servers are running as intended again. So things are moving forward! Still a blemish to see mixed reviews on a title of this quality. Looking at the public Steam stats, comparativly Hitman 2 performed signficantly better at the time of launch. (Not counting the free weekend explosion). The game has been out for a year on the Epic Store selling boat loads so it can not be used as a direct comparison on the situation. I do think the title will do just fine also on Steam over time after the initial hickups.
If anything this little misstep will hopefully only sharped IOI in the future to deliver super smooth launches.

[jonaz.dk]

Completely missed this DK indie release!
Necesse is a (solo project I think?!) by Mads Skovgård/Fair Games in Brabrand, still in active development early access since December 2019 and Very Positive reviews. Looks like things are going pretty well so far!

More on
https://necessegame.com







Also a more recent a DK indie (also solo I think?!) release from Digital Freebooter in Odder.

A horror themed FPS named Nightmare Graveyard
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... eGraveyard

Other Digital Freebooter releases includes:

Dice and Dwarfs
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... BOOTER.tbs
Master Maze Madness
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... azeMadness

[jonaz.dk]

The Power of Invisible Choices

[jonaz.dk]

Dr. James Naismith on the invention of basketball in 1891. Thats some iterative non digital game development right there.
Though I kind of like the first iteration of the game. Sounds like Speedball (Amiga).

[jonaz.dk]

Warhammer AoS: Soul Arena is available for preregristration. Launching in the near future I would assume.

Update: Soft launching February 4th.

Developed by (DK) Trophy Games.



Soul Arena is a next generation free-to-play autobattler set in the exciting fantasy universe of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.

Join us in this epic turn based war through the Mortal Realms and finetune the tactics and strategy of your team in this Dota Auto Chess inspired game that took off with a boom on Twitch.

On GooglePlay
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... rsoularena

[jonaz.dk]

Unity continues their shopping spree. And has now acquired Ziva Dynamics, In what seems like a clear response to Epic's Metahumans.

More on
https://blog.unity.com/technology/welcome-ziva-dynamics

[jonaz.dk]

Video Game Insights 2021 Market Report
https://vginsights.com/insights/article ... ket-report

[jonaz.dk]

Uncharted 4: Devs Reveal Secrets Behind the Series' Best Chase Sequence - Art of the Level

[jonaz.dk]

An opinion piece by veteran game designer Christopher Natsuume on NFTs in a game context.


He seems like a passionate hardline naysayer to say the least.
I agree on many points though I do believe with the right implementation some things can be fixed. But projecting NFTs in the game sphere will be gone in 2-3 years is probably widely off the mark. I do think it is here to stay (like it or not!) for the foreseeable future. Once the wild west days has settled a bit it will find its own niche of players. Personally I don't think I will be included in the player base. Just I have no interest in online gambling and the like.
I agree that the whole selling the "NFT game dream" as trading useable digital asset between games is complete BS for the most part in current times. But implementing it within closed ecosystems it could very much work as intended. Imagine a Roblox/Second Life like platform with myriads of games, social spaces and the player base to back it up. With a strong catalog of cosmetic items. I could certainly see the creation and reselling of >cosmetic< digital assets between players within platforms could be a thing for a lot of players. Not everyone obviously.
And with time intermediate technologies could easily emerge that incorporates easily exchanging of items from game platform to game platform. Games/items with gameplay relevance would be have to built from the ground up to support it. Starting with simpler things like 'baseline generic weapons' and armour pieces built on a shared SDK. And could go much further than that, once a dominant SDK has been established. Far from impossible given large-money incentives. Wouldn't count it out from ever happening in some projects out there in the 'not overly distant' future. And let's say it would also not be impossible to implement stat overrides for specific games for balancing purposes even. Or even better to define weapons, vehicles, outfits fit into classes, themes and use filters to allow or disallow specific item classes. So eg. a handgun's damage output, firing rate etc. would be stattet to fit a generic class type in other games game with perhaps smaller variations. In theory I do believe this could work. Though it will be many moons out before this would be developed and much longer before wide adoption across multiple titles.
Also thinking Universal Scene Description (USD) and or .blend files in packages could be used as a model format including everything from models, animation, textures, vfx, lights, shaders etc. and gameplay object properties. It would be rather easy to implement as an exchange format.

Some future NFT games will absolutely collapse as fast as they came. But some will find the right balance and will coexist in the game space just like casino games, F2P games does with traditional premium games. Players will have to find their 'homestead'. No doubt there will be a lot of wild west BS and shitty business practices and incentives that will reflect poorly on the games industry at large. I don't see any way around it.  

And to soothe things a bit, remember things are already worse. TikTok, Twitter and the rest of the algorithmic driven big tech mega corporations are already here to rot the minds of current and future generations. So it's already game over.
But here we are! There are no simple-Utopian-go happy-go lucky-saving the world-solutions. All we can really do is accept the new realities and adapt accordingly. Unless you want to carve out your own puritan nation somewhere on the globe.
(Old grumpy man shakes fist at sky)

But hopefully at least you can (in theory) choose to what extent you implement things in your own life.

Adding: I might also suspect there could be some legal ramifications if the public awareness turns too negative on the technology and it's implementation and we could see banning attempts in some form by governments and the like. Though the space will quickly find a way around it no doubt.

Adding more: Things can quickly boil down to how the technology is implemented. It can be an absolute shit implementation or range to just fine. Just like F2P. But at the end of the day it's speculative gambling. And it's more the outside world what it will do to people that might be the problem. Turning people into little "sales people" (or perhaps more accurately decentralized pyramid schemers) of the NFT wares on the interwebs trying to pass on the hot potato to the next buyer. With big winners and big losers. But there is always unfollow, mute and stuff for that. (Features I already enjoy in the general social media landscape for other reasons). Turning people towards scammy practices by design is indeed a sad development.

If the legit (if you can talk about that) selling of NFTs just happens in it's own little bubble I couldn't care less. Just as I don't mind people selling skins in whatever game in their own little bubbles.
And just like casino and F2P games. As long as they exist in their own space and nobody is forcing anybody to play them, that's fine. It's more of a problem when beloved franchises suddenly adopt business practices far from the original. And suddenly people will have to be all worky, grindy, salesy (potential scammy) to participate in the game in a meaningful way. That sucks big time. And the response from the gamer community has already proven this is a hard no no path.
Morally many F2P and casino games are probably not much better than NFT games. Maybe to some extent by some virtual margin. Using their own shady business practices and manipulation of the player. So there is that to consider.

Also adding a broad and informative critiquing look at crypto/NFTs in general. With a bit of game specific relevance in the later part of the video.




**Additional notes:
I do think the fundamental idea of having decentralized systems like cryptocurrencies is super neat and could even be a fundamental democratic institution in it's own right, when done right some day. But there seems to be some early hurdels and concerns with the current technology. I hope at some point new technologies will arise that will just nail the concept 100%.
Also I'm not advising you to hate on crypto/NFTs or anything else for that matter, even with it's objective issues. Only to take some considerations before throwing yourself into the fray. At the end of the day. You do you!

[jonaz.dk]

The Steam Deck is launching February 25th 2022.

Got a good feeling about this one. Expecting Valve to have hit the nail with this one. If MS or Sony is not there to challenge the Switch portable space. Valve apparently does!
And let it be noted it Valve does not have a global retail precessence unlike the others. So it will probably never be a serious Switch competitor. But I expect a success in it's own right. Perhaps permutations of the platform from other vendors will do something to a certain extent. Though the entire branding concept of having a ton of Steam Deck variants from different manufacturers is a challenging one. It works for Nvidia. But it will be a big mess for consumer perception unless the manufacturers device branding and any platform variation takes a big back seat from naming, design and packaging. We'll see!
Update: Oh wait that's already too late. Looking at you white Alienware Steam Deck.

[jonaz.dk]

A look at the now ancient and canceled Lucas Arts project Star Wars 1313. I remember when the first footage hit back in 2013. It looked incredible at the time!

Always fun to see a bit from the project that never was.



Actually it still looks really good in 2022. That old Unreal Engine 3 project aged really well.
The original E3 demo

[jonaz.dk]

Looking pretty nice! Though there are quite the some of immersion breaking contemporary props in the trailer and kiddo pointed out Cortana looked off. He has been playing a lot of Halo.

**Update: Well well... after catching a few episodes I can attest that this show is very skipable. It is a massive diversion from anything Halo. It's not far from the Boba Fett show in terms of enjoyment. Which is mostly completely off. Both shows audience scores in the Rotten Tamatoes 5x% range is perfectly well deserved.
Boba Fett had one redeeming episode.. the inserted The Madalorian episode.

Halo TV Series Trailer #2

[jonaz.dk]

EPISODE 17: Rumsoldater og 3D grafik med Michael Witus Schierup

Vi taler om rumsoldater. Nærmere bestemt Space Marines fra Warhammer 40k universet. Helt præcist Terminators fra spillet Space Hulk.
Gæsten i dag er Michael Witus, der har lavet 3D grafik til flere computerspil, og her i blandt et Space Hulk spil. Sammen nørder Allan og Michael igennem, og taler om deres fælles passion for W40K universet.

Vi vender også lidt af historien bag spillet, lidt om håndtering af eksisterende IP’er og lidt om det Michael kalder “wartime crunch”.

https://www.idsu.dk/podcast/episode-17

Der er også ved at være en del podcasts på sitet
https://www.idsu.dk/podcast

[jonaz.dk]

The charming #DKGAME poster is now available as print on demand.

Follow the link!
https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/100717575

[jonaz.dk]

So a new Kickstarter from @emilarsen (Sun Tzu Games) just launched!

Rogue Angels - Legacy of the Burning Suns

A coop boardgame set in the Burning Suns universe.
The goal is incredibly ambitious! 2.6 million DKK.. sounds crazy! But he might just get there?!
Close to 60.000 DKK already at the moment of writing with the initial launch boost.

Also a tip of the hat for a really nice looking game and campaign! Good work!

The original Burning Suns campaign was successful back in 2013. Meeting the goal and eventually landing on nearly 800.000DKK. So that went more than well! (223% funded)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2833&p=13526

But the high goal does worry me a bit. I don't follow KS very closely but just a quick glance at the current top funded tabletop projects has their goal substantially lower set, unless you have the Marvel IP at your disposal. (They have a goal of 3.3M DKK for the Marvel Zombies KS)

But so far it's looking good!

Best of luck to Emil and the new game and campaign!



On Kicktraq


**UPDATE**
Ouch! the project is now cancelled! And will relaunch later once the kinks has been worked out.
It did mange DKK 276,419 and 397 backers so that is actually not too bad in something like 4 days! But also a quickly flattening curve.

Emil writes in more detail here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/su ... ts/3422722

Also in the same exact category..(scifi coop 4 player boardgame). We have Deep Rock Galactic launching the 10th Feb. So that would have been an extra head ache for the Rogue Angels project to deal with. Obviously I am expecting Deep Rock Galactic the boardgame Kickstarter to be a massive success. They do have overwhelming resources and IP to pull it off.

Well good try! and best of luck with the relaunch of the project at a later date to Email and team.

[jonaz.dk]

Sign ups for the Copenhagen Matchup event is now live!
Get ready to pitch those investors and publishers visiting Copenhagen.

April 25 + 26

Sign up and more info here. As usual it's free!
https://copenhagenmatchup.dk

Direct link to sign up
https://podio.com/webforms/27029925/2070928

[jonaz.dk]

Grats to the (DK) Game Swing team on signing with Ubisoft!

Stikbold was awesome! I hope this will come close.



Throw Anything and Everything At Your Friends in OddBallers, Launching March 24

OddBallers is a new dodgeball multiplayer party game where just about anything you can find can be thrown at your opponents. Launching March 24 on PC via the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Connect, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, and Amazon Luna (and available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S via compatibility mode), the game can be played solo or in multiplayer, up to four players locally* and six online.

More on
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/ ... g-march-24

[jonaz.dk]

KILOO just launched a new runner! And it's not a Subway Surfers!
The new runner is MetroLand (and so far only exclusively on Huawei App Gallery). I would assume more stores are to follow after an exclusivity period. So technically they are not going head to head with SYBO's Subway Surfers. At least not yet besides the Subway Surfers clones existing on the App Gallery.
**UPDATE** According to this article it is an exclusive: (If it is timed.. could still be the case?)
https://www.gsmarena.com/subway_surfers ... -53028.php
- Naturally there are other non-official sources other than the App Gallery.

Haven't played MetroLand yet. Looks nice and well produced in the same vein but with a futuristic theme. Gameplay looks pretty identical with smaller additions here and there.
A gameplay video has been out for a while now.


Also it seems SYBO has bought out Subway Surfers from KILOO for the most part. The web version of Surfers is still on www.kiloo.com and all other ties from the game seems to have been cut.

It is an interesting move by KILOO with another runner. Objectively it is one of the hardest categories to monetize properly. Unless you get a game with millions and millions of players retained.

Obviously we shouldn't expect MetroLand to overtake Subway Surfers as a competitor in any way. If SYBO could even do that remains to be seen. Repeating the thundering success of Subways Surfers in a new app is probably off the table for either of them.
SYBO describes themselves as 'the kings of runners' with hints of something is on the way. So I would expect more on that front in the future.

Grats on the release to KILOO! Fun to see a little competition of former partners in the same category.

MetroLand on Huawei App Gallery ** Read update **
https://appgallery.huawei.com/#/app/C103438517

**UPDATE: Also adding: I'm not sure I would recommend installing the Huawei App Gallery. The company has a long history of espionage and security concerns. Being a Chinese company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
If in doubt just don't! There is no reason to potentially have Chinese spyware and backdoors on top of your US spyware and backdoors
Huawei even has their own Wikipedia page of security concerns. So caution is advised.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism ... y_concerns

[jonaz.dk]

Playwood Project (DK Devs of Wartile) has an upcoming Steam play test version of their new game Successor on Steam. It's not ready just yet but 'Request Access' to be notified when the playtest launches. Looks good so far!

UPDATE: It is live!

Gave it a quick play. Seems promising!